A Tale of Two Sisters

Tartan Asia Extreme

R1 DVD

R4 Shock DVD

A Tale of Two Sisters is a superb example of a film which crosses genres and does not really allow you to define it until the very end. The first thing that captures you is the cinematography, this is a film filled with luscious colour, shadows and fleeting images. The house itself and the environment becomes part of the film, every corner, shadow, colour, fabric and ornament becomes significant. Even furniture is important and this hints at this constant use of the environment helps introduce hints about the plot before they happen (for example, reference to the wardrobe).

At the same time it is really only with a genuinely high quality edition of the film that this becomes evident. There are many releases, but the Tartan Asian Extreme release of 2005 which comes on two DVDS is the very best. You not only get the best quality image imaginable but a DTS track which really works the surround sound. You hear doors creaking, footsteps in the distance, cupboards rattling and so on and all this sets the stage for a very strange cinematic experience. It is one of the best DTS tracks in terms of producing a subtle, moody and textured environment. It is not over the top, but uses carefully placed sounds to put you in the centre of the experience.

At first you are unsure exactly what you are watching. The house seems creepy, dark and the family is plain weird but what exactly happens is very open to interpretation. It is certainly not a traditional ghost film and is packed with psychiatric illness, family dysfunction, suicide and madness. The way in which the story unfolds keeps the viewer wondering exactly what is occurring until the last 30 minutes of the film, when, in flashbacks, we begin to get some background on the events that have led to the current disaster. However, that being said, there is still a cross over between the seeming madness of Su-mi and what is probably a genuine haunting. The conclusion of the film seems to suggest that the step mother is killed by the ghost of Su-yeon, regardless of the hallucinatory aspects of Su-mi’s breakdown.

The storyline is complex and intriguing. It seems that the husband has been having an affair with a nurse looking after the children’s mother who is severely depressed due to the treatment she is receiving for cancer. In a fit of depression, she commits suicide in a wardrobe and is found by Su-yeon. Trying to revive her mother, the wardrobe falls on Su-yeon and pins her to the ground. The nurse, unable to cope with what she sees, retreats from the scene and tries to manipulate Su-mi to intervene. In a horrific moment she tells Su-mi she will reject it if she doesn’t stop and listen. Su-mi, of course, has no idea what she is talking about and in fury with the nurse trying to take her mother’s place stamps from the house. She does not realize Su-yeon is dying upstairs. Perhaps even the nurse doesn’t realize the gravity of what is occurring, in any event both the mother and Su-yeon die. Su-Mi confronted with their deaths her feelings of uncontrollably guilt has a massive breakdown.

After some period of hospitalization she returns to the house to her father. At this stage he has had the sense to keep the nurse, now his wife, out of the house. However, as time progresses Su-mi’s mind degenerates and she replays the events, feeling that she is still trying to protect Su-yeon from the stepmother, whom she has demonized into a major destructive figure. While, of course, the nurse (who has now married the father) was partially to blame, it is in Su-Mi’s psyche that the major violent events depicted occur. She suffers a psychotic break and begins to imagine all manner of terrible tortures she believes the stepmother visited on Su-yeon, none of which are real.

However, as the film progresses there is a deliberate mixing of her psychosis with the fears of the step mother, the guilt of the father and, it seems, the revengeful ghost of Su-yeon who not only is after the nurse, but wants to save Su-mi from the suffering she is experiencing.

This is startling film, beautiful and haunting, evocatively presented with such an eye for detail. Every scene seems like a “Zen Buddhist painting”, everything is perfected placed, every gesture is significant. There are scenes of such emotional intensity they nearly take your breath away. The ambiguity of the plot makes it all the more seductive, even when it is finished you will still debate with yourself exactly where hallucination ended and haunting began. The picture offered of human weakness frailty, family dysfunction and emotional betrayal is as powerful as the possibly supernatural aspects of the tale.

This superb two DVD edition is really the classic release. The second disc includes lots of extras ranging from interviews to a psychiatrists perspective on the film ! There are behind the scenes and post production documentaries and some hidden extras such as a letter from Su-yeon on the first DVD and one from Su-mi on the second.

The Shock R4 DVD in Australia has similar special features but does not include the DTS track.